Historical Food Fortnightly: Orange!

The Challenge: 25. Orange You Glad May 3 - May 14
It can be orange-flavored, orange-colored, or just plain oranges - but the challenge is “orange”!


The Recipe: (where did you find it, link to it if possible) To Make Apple Pufs To make Apple pufs. TAke a Pomewater or any other Apple that is not hard, or harsh in taste: mince it small with a dozen or twenty Razins of the Sunne: wet the Apples in two Egges, beat them all together with the backe of a Knife, or a Spoone. Season them with Nutmeg, Rosewater, Sugar, and Ginger: drop them into a Frying-pan with a Spoone, frye them like Egges, wring on the iuyce of an Orenge, or Lemmon, and serue them in.


The Date/Year and Region: 1615 England


How Did You Make It: (a brief synopsis of the process of creation) I still have some frozen apples so I took those out and heated them slightly in water to re-hyrdate them (they've been in the freezer over six months. Any water they had in them has been freeze dried out of them pretty much at this point). I also had raisins, eggs, sugar, rosewater, nutmeg, and ginger. I bought an orange and juiced. Although, honestly, our oranges are way sweeter than theirs would have been.

I used about 4 cut and peeled apples, three handfuls of raisins, two eggs, 40 twists of the nutmeg grinder, about a teaspoon and a half of ginger, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of rosewater. I admit, I used the oh so historical blender rather than a spoon to mix everything together. However, this ended up being VERY watery so I put it into a sieve and that reduced the volume by about half. However, it also made it easier to scoop up and cook like eggs. Not that I'm great at that either - there is a reason I always end up with scrabbled eggs. Then, once the now scrambled apple puffs (which is the reason there aren't any pictures.  It looked like burnt cat food) were done, I poured a bit of the orange juice over them.


Time to Complete: Maybe a half hour?


Total Cost: The oranges were $2.99 a pound (organic). Everything else I already had.


How Successful Was It?: (How did it taste? How did it look? Did it turn out like you thought it would?) Honestly, it was pretty good. I mean, it's apples, oranges, and raisins with extra sugar - it's not like it could taste that bad. I need to work on the amounts of spices and water but it is something I'll try again so...not bad. I think it would be a good early modern vegan "meat (less) ball" for pastas. This with the white sauce (it had oranges in it too) I was looking at over pasta? Might not be a bad choice next year for Lent.

How Accurate Is It?: (fess up to your modifications and make-dos here) So, I only used two eggs because out eggs now are much bigger than what they would have had in the early 17th century. The oranges are also sweeter. The apples are of a late 18th century variety - that being said, they would have recognized everything I used easily. Except the blender. I even used olive oil to fry the puffs in so yeah, the blender. And the stove.